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Trevor Lin

Maddie Roepe

Writing 2

11 December 2023

Portfolio Metacognitive Reflection

When walking up the stairs of the Interactive Learning Pavillion on the first day of

college, I remember expecting Writing 2 to be like any other writing class. I anticipated readings

would consist of novels from the past and then be followed by reading quizzes and an analytical

essay. Furthermore, I expected that revising would be to the extent of grammar mistakes and

misconceptions of course readings. Fast forward to the present and my view of this class is

dramatically different.

Starting with Writing Project 1, I immediately realized from the introductory readings

that this course would be about writing strategies, not literature. For example, Mike Bunn’s

“How to Read Like a Writer” set the tone for how I should approach reading when he introduced

the idea of identifying “some of the choices the author made so that you can better understand

how such choices might arise in your writing” (Bunn 72). The newfound ability to recognize

genres within writing from reading like a writer made it the most important strategy for this

project. As I chose a human interest story for this genre translation, reading like a writer was

especially helpful when going through human interest stories and looking for rhetorical choices

that aligned with this genre’s conventions. This reading strategy revealed that I read more human

interest stories than previously thought. Instead of being a conventional news article, human

interest stories consist of a personal narrative at the start, direct quotes from people close to the

issue, and scientific information at the end to show how the story happened and why it matters.
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Because of this, I believe the course readings and subsequent research process were the most

critical stages of my writing process. From personal experience, writing is much easier when you

know the direction your writing should go. However, it’s the preparation stage of deciding the

topic to write about and which genre it’ll fall under that was the most challenging aspect of

Writing Project 1. This challenge arose in Project Builder 1.2 when I chose a news article for my

genre, which was too general of a term. I hesitated to commit to a genre for my project as I

wasn’t familiar with genre conventions. However, I overcame this through suggestions from my

instructor, who suggested a human interest story and reading like a writer. Following this advice

allowed me to brainstorm ideas about who would be the human interest story's focus and how to

translate information about CTE to an audience of people not familiar with the subject.

Ultimately, I enjoyed writing the genre translation the most during this writing project.

Combining tragic stories with scientific proof, all to bring about awareness and change, was a

thought-provoking experience for me. Lastly, the experience of writing in a new genre taught me

that writers don’t choose what genre their writing should fall under based on how much they like

it. Because genres are tools based on previous responses to the same situation, writers choose the

genre that achieves their goal in the most effective way. After learning this, I knew a human

interest story was the way to go, as its emphasis on emotions was something I could utilize when

appealing to parents about their children’s health and the dangers football poses to that health.

For the reflective portion of Writing Project 1, I believe I did a good job of citing seven

sources and showing how I applied their teachings in my writing. For example, my introduction

of Brad Jacobson’s rhetorical analysis and subsequent connection to reading like a writer

illustrates how course readings cleared up previous misconceptions about genre. Furthermore, I

feel like I analyzed Richard Straub’s text about giving genuine feedback in a way that provides
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positive feedback and a suggestion to do something differently. Straub's article also applies to

receiving feedback, which influenced me to shift Writing Project 1 from a Google document to a

Google site. Lastly, I was specific when referring to portions of human interest stories, such as

the personal narrative, and how I utilized the same rhetorical choices in my writing.

Writing Project 2 focused on listening to a research community’s findings on writing and

retelling it in the form of conversation. Having no experience doing formal research for

academic writing, it was initially challenging for me to navigate the UCSB library and find

academic journals about my topic. However, with the experience from Writing Project 1 of

choosing a topic and genre to translate said topic into, I had already decided to listen to the

research community focused on bilingual children’s language and literacy development and retell

it through a fictional narrative. As a result, knowing my topic and using keywords from my

research question made finding sources much more straightforward. However, reading these

sources became the most challenging aspect of Writing Project 2. I was initially overwhelmed by

the sheer amount of pages and scientific jargon within my sources. What made this portion

manageable was Karen Rosenberg’s teachings in “Reading Games: Strategies for Reading

Scholarly Sources.” Rosenberg encouraged me to “read smarter, not harder” (Rosenberg 211) by

being able to summarize a journal’s main idea after focusing on the title, abstract, and concluding

results. Applying this technique to my selected sources, I believe I got a good grasp on the

subject and accurately portrayed how members of research communities respond to one another.

As a result, I learned that for Writing Project 2 and future research, I don’t have to fully

understand science and math to grasp the article’s conclusions. The most enjoyable and helpful

section of this assignment was Project Builder 2.3. Being able to create a creative worknet was

instrumental in being able to organize information and make connections between sources. As
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for my role in this scholarly conversation, I now understand how even a first-year college student

can listen to a research community and enter the conversation by coming up with your

conclusions. Ultimately, Writing Project 2 introduced me to the concept of research communities

and the scholarly conversations that happen within them. It showed me that research

communities don't foster tension by disproving one another’s findings but by building upon

existing knowledge for the good of society. Furthermore, the project taught me how members of

research communities respond through publishing articles and that by listening to the

conversation and summarizing their findings, I too am joining the conversation.

Additionally, the reflective portion of Writing Project 2 consisted of a cover letter

explaining the research process and all that I learned from listening to a research community’s

conversation. I enjoyed the beginning of my cover letter as my experience writing a human

interest story made me implement my personal narrative to foster connections with the reader. It

also made the project more personal and added to the uniqueness of the final portfolio.

Furthermore, I could’ve better established the topic that my fictional narrative would be in my

submission draft. However, I believe my final portfolio fixed this when I provided the basic

knowledge necessary for the reader to understand the basis of my fictional narrative.

Throughout my time in Writing 2, I’ve changed how I view writing and the revision

process. Being able to receive good peer feedback and feedback from the teacher at a time when

I can implement their suggestions has helped me become a better writer. By learning to accept

criticism, I’ve become someone who knows how to revise their project in between drafts.

Previously, I’d tended to get most of my writing content down on the first draft, thus leaving

grammar as the only thing to fix for future and final drafts. However, knowing how to revise

areas such as style between rough drafts has helped my writing better reflect what I’m trying to
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say. Something I can continue working on in future writing classes is giving better peer

feedback. While pointing out things the writer did well is a good strategy, I still tend to leave

feedback I know my partner wants to hear instead of what they need to hear.

Furthermore, Writing 2 introduced me to genres and the idea that they're not just in

writing but all around us. Knowing genres are just a set of responses for a situation helped me

better understand why genres, such as research papers, are organized the way they are.

Additionally, I learned about writing strategies and how our mind works during the writing

process. This lesson was evident after reading “Understanding Style,” which explained that my

writing may become wordy and unclear due to my lack of clarity on what I’m writing about.

Rather than trying to clear up my writing, I now know that I have to find clarity in my

understanding of the topic before fixing grammatical errors. From reading about first and

second-order thinking to seeing genres as ecosystems, Writing 2 supplied me with many new

writing strategies. I plan to utilize these revision strategies in future essays and reading strategies

for research projects in other classes. Ultimately, this was one of the first classes I truly focused

on writing, and I’ve gained much-needed lessons from it.

Work Cited

Bunn, Mike. “How to Read Like a Writer.” Writing Spaces: Reading on Writing, vol. 2, Parlor

Press and WAC Clearinghouse, pp. 71-86.

Rosenberg, Karen. “Reading Games: Strategies for Reading Scholarly Sources.” Writing Spaces:

Reading on Writing, vol. 2, Parlor Press and WAC Clearinghouse, pp. 210-220.

Straub, Richard. “Responding–Really Responding–to Other Student’s Writing.” The Subject is

Writing, Boynton/Cook Publishers, pp. 137-147.

Williams, Joseph M. “Style: The Basics of Clarity and Grace.” Pearson, 14 Jan 2014.